There have been some changes to certifications recently. And with that new challenges and requirements. In the past we had MCTS and MCITP or MCPD on a specific product and that was it, now the story is somewhat different. You will need to not only know the product (yes, I am one that still focuses on knowing a product not the test) but also the environment on which it sits or lives (therefore Windows Server and supporting services).

The requirements for MCSE: SharePoint now take you through the MCSA:Windows Server 2012. Many have questioned this, I don’t. Why? I have seen plenty of “accidental SharePoint Farm Administrators” that have no background with the Server OS, much less with the services (like DNS and IIS). Again, I am not saying this will guarantee knowledge but it does in some way require exposure to it.

So, again, the next number of posts will be to provide guidance for the needed knowledge for the test requirements. If you have seen the way I go about this, you then know I don’t focus on exam questions, but rather providing guidance to the TechNet and MSDN documentation to get to know the product. I will also in this case go through the process to setup your virtual environment to play with the products and get to know them.